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Note:This is a student project from a course
affiliated with the Ethnography of the University
Initiative. EUI supports faculty development of courses in which students conduct
original research on their university, and encourages students to think about colleges
and universities in relation to their communities and within larger national and global
contexts.

Note:This is a student project from a course
affiliated with the Ethnography of the University
Initiative. EUI supports faculty development of courses in which students conduct
original research on their university, and encourages students to think about colleges
and universities in relation to their communities and within larger national and global
contexts.

Stuck in the Middle With You: An Inqueery into Political and Sexual Difference at the U of I

GWS 467/HIST 396 Locating Queer Culture Spring 2012Instructor, Siobhan SomervilleOur goal for this course was to create original research projects about queer culture, with a special focus on our local context, the University of Illinois, in relation to the surrounding Urbana-Champaign area. Our guiding questions included: What are the various ways of defining “queer”? What counts as “culture”? Where do we find queer culture? How is queer culture produced, sustained, or transformed? How do institutions (such as universities) help to produce or erase queer culture? What roles do race, class, and/or gender play in the production and/or visibility of queer culture? Our course texts included selected examples of queer cultural production, including film, novels, television, magazines, and music. Assignments were designed around two research projects: (1) an archival research project on some aspect of local queer history and (2) an ethnographic research project on some aspect of contemporary local queer culture.

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Student Communities and CultureThe university offers an extraordinary opportunity to study and document student communities, life, and culture. This collection includes research on the activities, clubs, and durable social networks that comprise sometimes the greater portion of the university experience for students.